The Dear Hunter's Casey Crescenzo has an epic 'Rebirth'

In storytelling, the fourth act is sometimes thought of as a new beginning.

And for Casey Crescenzo, the lead singer of The Dear Hunter, that's exactly the mentality behind the latest installment in their multi-album saga.

amNewYork spoke with the prog-rocker about "Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise," the difficulty in creating set lists and future graphic novel plans.

The word that comes to mind when listening to "Act IV" is epic. Is that a fair description of the new album?

I don't know what a fair representation of the album is, but that's very complimentary. It's never a desire to be as big and bombastic and dramatic as possible. But it does air on that side.

Progressive storytelling must make it difficult to form set lists, no?

Impossible. There are over a hundred songs now.

And they're interconnected which must make it even harder.

There's a few like that that we play. In "Act III," two of the songs we play go so perfectly together and there are a few other songs like that. But at a certain point, we have to put ourselves back that we're a live rock band and we have to approach it like that. The concepts have to end at some point or otherwise it would be so overbearing and so nonsensical.

Bands like Coheed and Cambria have transformed their story lines into other mediums like graphic novels. Any interest in doing something like that in the future?

It's been something I've been trying to do since "Act I" came out, but it never really panned out. The closest we got was a special limited edition of Act III when it was released. It didn't do what I wanted it to do in terms of portraying the story I wanted. So that's why I am working with someone now who [graphic novels] are his passion. We finished the first one and we're looking to pitch it now.If you go: Dear Hunter is at Apple Store Soho tomorrowTuesday at 7:30 p.m., 103 Prince St., RSVP at apple.com/retail/soho.

The band is at Irving Plaza on Wednesday at 7 p.m., 127 E. 23rd St., 212-614-6932, $20.